Walker recall signatures surge

A group trying to kick Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker out of office say they have gathered over half a million signatures on recall petitions — nearly enough to hold an election next year, according to a report Thursday.

The United Wisconsin coalition say they have collected 507,533 signatures as of Thursday, The Associated Press said. The group must have 540,208 by Jan. 17, and is aiming to collect more than 720,000 signatures to force a recall election of the Republican governor.

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“The people of Wisconsin have said enough is enough,” the state’s Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate said, according to the AP.

Responding, the Wisconsin Republican Party announced Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit seeking to eliminate “patently false names” and duplicates from the petition.

Currently, it’s the responsibility of Scott Walker’s campaign to challenge any signatures they find suspicious within 10 days of the petition’s filing. The Wisconsin Republican Party says that means they would have the impossible task of examining and verifying more than 540,000 signatures in 10 days - averaging to over 50,000 signatures a day.

The lawsuit asks the court to direct the Government Accountability Board to “look for and eliminate facially duplicative signatures, patently fictitious names and illegible addresses during their careful examination of the petition.”

Republican Party spokesperson Ben Sparks also hit back against the signature collection itself , telling the AP in a statement, “We have no doubt the Democrats are rallying their left-wing base around their blatant power grab for the governor’s mansion.”

It is unclear when the recall election could take place if enough signatures are gathered, the AP wrote. But with potential court challenges, it is unlikely the vote could take place before May.

Walker’s moves to restrict collective-bargaining rights for public union workers in Wisconsin spurred the recall effort against the governor, and liberal activists also targeted a number of Republican state legislators. Two Republicans lost their seats in a summer recall election, but the party still controls the state Senate.